The good news my faithful old truck is back in the driveway! Hats off to Earnhardt Dodge in Gilbert AZ! I obviously caused the problem. A connector under the dash in the vacinity of the emergency brake pedal had a wire pulled either out or at least back far enough that it did not make connection. I am going to try and attach a picture of the techs description! Thank you to all of you who commented on my posts! Many thanks to Mopar Man for the forum!

What can be learned from this? Hard to say, it cost me $760.00 to get this fixed. Am I sorry I installed my own dash and heater core? No, I can only guess what it would have cost me for the dealer to install the new lower dash and heater core. The wire harnes plugs are tender and need to be respected! Not even sure what I did, just thank God it's back and running, no new parts or computers.

Wheeeeww!

I might of missed it, but might I ask how many hours did that $720 pay for ?

I might of missed it, but might I ask how many hours did that $720 pay for ?

6 hours, they asked me to sign for up to 3 hours when I dropped it off, the service adviser kept me well informed. When they new more about what was wrong they asked me for 3 more hours. All in all it went pretty well, do not feel ripped off in any way!

Truck is worth ZERO if it doesn't run...  or maybe parts value, salvage...   at a certain point, fixing a problem is the most important thing.

Glad its fixed.

 

I do not know how many time I have told people on this forum to check for that very thing "Wires popped out oor slightly pushed back from the connector", I have seen it personally on my own rigs and as a tech many times and the techs I now supervise find this sort of thing on equipment quite often as well.

 

It is unreal how common it is on OBDII ports as they get used a lot and if one doesn't get the plug lined up straight can push pins or sockets out of the plugs resulting in no communication.

Truck is worth ZERO if it doesn't run...  or maybe parts value, salvage...   at a certain point, fixing a problem is the most important thing.

 

 

You make it sound like it wasn't intended. I was curious on labor charge rates now and in his area verses the last tie I was at the dealer. Sooner or later everyone will end up taking it to the shop ... just like to keep up with the hourly rates as time goes on. This way there is no shock when driving into the dealers bay.

I actually did read the advice about pins and sockets being pushed back, took every plug apart several times looking for something. Really wanted to fix it myself. At 55 years old with 2 compressed disc's and bad eyes........I had enough, I was tired of laying under the dash and under the hood. Gave up pure and simple! I look at it this way......been married to my lovely wife for 23 years tomorrow! Have repaired every thing we own, my kids own, my mother owns and countless others. Can not total how much money I have saved, got to be in the high K's! If they had done the lower dash for me it would have been more like $1000.00 plus the parts. Thanks again for the advice!